Modern legumes have earned a solid place in Ronald Thompson’s operation thanks to a jump in chickpea yields from less than a tonne per hectare to an average of 1.3t/ha in just over five years.
Mr Thompson, Yarnham, Chinchilla, says new varieties have boosted winter legume profitability by 20-30 per cent via better yields and the nitrogen-fixing effect.
“Since we’ve put legumes into the mix we’ve been able to significantly reduce our nitrogen applications,” Mr Thompson says.
“Our chickpea crop left about sixty units of nitrogen behind last year so that has benefited the wheat this year.”
He says modern legumes also tend to be taller, with the bottom pods about 150 millimetres from the ground, which makes harvest of both wheat and under-planted chickpeas easier.
“Mungbeans are the same – we are growing much taller crops, they are much easier to handle, and the modern varieties have been a great success for us,” he says.
In October, Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) will launch five new pulse varieties developed with assistance from the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), including two lentil varieties, two chickpea varieties and one broadbean variety.
The chickpea varieties include PBA HatTrick , a high-yielding, high ascochyta blight-resistant variety suitable for southern Queensland and northern NSW.
Ascochyta blight hasn’t been a problem for the western Darling Downs operation to date, but Mr Thompson welcomes the yield and disease-resistance gains made via GRDC’s ongoing investment in pulse breeding.
“Our winter irrigation is usually considered a break crop for weeds, pests and disease but because of the gains made by new varieties the chickpeas have become a valuable addition to the operation,” he said.
The 935ha property includes dryland and irrigated crop production, dominated by 170ha under a centre-pivot irrigation system.
Water sources include overland flow, town effluent and a flood-lifting license which is used occasionally to harvest water from Charley’s Creek.
This year Yorker chickpeas and Baxter wheat are under partial irrigation, although most years Mr Thompson prefers to use the water allocation for summer crops including peanuts, sorghum or mungbeans depending on gross margins.
In 2005 Mr Thompson grew an Australian record peanut crop which yielded 8.1t/ha. He sells to Kingaroy-based Peanut Company of Australia (PCA).
He says experience growing horticultural crops including watermelons has illustrated the importance of timing and cost of crop nutrition.
Two years ago Mr Thompson applied chicken manure delivered from Kilcoy at a total cost of $35/t.
The high cost of urea prompted him to look past concentrated sources of nitrogen, and the high nitrogen content and affordable cost of the manure made the exercise worthwhile.
He says despite having feedlots nearby the purchase and application costs have been prohibitive in comparison with chicken manure.
“When we grew irrigated peanuts two years ago the fertiliser blend I used was $495/t and last year it was $1500/t so it had tripled in price to grow a peanut crop that was worth $10-15/t more,” he said.
“We’ve got to be able keep our nutrient costs down and the biggest single thing I’ve done is to consider the next crop rather than just price and conditions in one year.
“Mungbeans haven’t been as successful as chickpeas at getting nutrient down but the prices have been good.”
The property is split 50:50 into brigalow/belah soil and kurrajong pine sandy loam, with the irrigation spanning both soil types.
“The peanuts are grown on the sandy soil and the heavier soil grows crops such as sorghum,” Mr Thompson says.
“The lighter soils will grow anything, it’s just a matter of supplying the nutrient for them.”
He says the average rainfall is 660mm but a more useful figure for decision-making is rainfall deficit.
“If I have a soil moisture profile of 700mm I will look to see what rainfall we haven’t had to make the decision on what crop to put in,” he says.
“This is because if we haven’t had had a lot of rain to get that 700mm we are likely to run into a hard finish and run out of moisture.”
Mr Thompson says the hot spell in late August may bring his wheat harvest forward by six weeks to the beginning of October.
“It was early in head because of the hot weather and is way ahead of where it usually would be,” he says.
“Without any decent finishing rain the partially irrigated wheat will probably be what we’d normally expect from our dryland crops at about a tonne to the acre but it has been a low input crop.”
He says chickpeas use the advantage of a taproot to forage for moisture and consequently handle a dry finish much better than wheat.
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